 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Everyone of us who plans to be here in another 50 years, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. I see that many of us want to leave to at least 100 before we leave this earth. I'm especially privileged to be here today to celebrate with you all the 50th anniversary of our church, the Shepherd Hill Baptist Church. As you've heard already, this was my church and I still believe it is my church. And I was Secretary of the Yoruba Service at some point. I'm glad to see that the Yoruba Service is still on, between the hours I believe of 8 or 9 o'clock, for those of us who want an early service. The fathers of this church deserve our commendation, even if posthumously, the likes of Reverend Dr. Adibite, who for many years headed the Shepherd Hill Baptist Church and was the pastor who directed our own affairs here. Here we learned the word of God at Sunday School and we learned so much else, especially from Reverend Dr. Adibite. Listening to pastor Tunde Bakari is always inspiring, always challenging. I've listened to him for very many years, very many years. Before he got on radio, before he got on television, I listened to him. And I think that one thing that you cannot deny is the level of knowledge and insight that he brings to bear in every one of his lectures. And I want to praise the Lord and thank the Almighty God for what God has deposited in him and what he continuously offers to the body of Christ and to all of us as a nation. I was excited of course to hear him rightly divide the word of God on the central role of the church in nation building. I just want to speak for a moment or two and make most of this he mentioned. But I think that some of us who have also been on the inside for a while may be able to speak to the parallels of being involved, some of the parallels or dangers of being involved. The first is that you must not always expect the support of the church even when you're involved. I recall that I was pastor Tunde Bakari at the time when I was being attacked for being a candidate who had to come out to say, are we going to just sit around and preach and pray? If we don't get involved, how are we ever going to make any kind of difference? The problem of course is that the church very quickly reminds us that we are esters. In other words, you are there for a time such as this. But it's easily forgotten that Mordecai who said to Esther, that Esther you are there for a time such as this. And if you don't deliver, if you don't manage to help your people, God will raise somebody else. But Esther said to Mordecai, he said, you now must go and pray and fast for me. And then I will go to the king and if I perish, I perish. Very frequently, the part of it we remember is that you are there for a time such as this. I'm not going to ask how many people have ever prayed or fasted, fasted in particular for me. Members of Shepardu Baptist Church, I'm not going to ask you that embarrassing question because I know that very few hands will go up. The second is the problem of salt. The second period of the second problem is the problem of salt. Pastor Fundebacare said a few moments ago that this is the test that... What we are talking about is a test of courage and faith that every nation builder must face. And he says he calls it the promptings and paradox of destiny. The promptings and paradox of destiny. Years ago, just before I was sworn in as Attorney General of Lagos State, I had been in the church, I became born again in 1994. So this was just five years after when I was nominated to be Attorney General. On a particular day, I was in a small room with about three of the advisors of the governor of the Governor of Latin America, three of his advisors and myself. And we were meant to be talking about some policy. But there was a gentleman in the room who was smoking a pipe. Smoke filled the entire room. For somebody who had been born again for some years, I had not even come across people anymore who were smoking, let alone being in the same room with somebody who was smoking. And smoke was all over the room. My hair was smelling, my body was smelling. So I said to the gentleman, why don't you stop smoking? So that I could have some peace here. Fortunately, I agreed with me, but not before saying, you pastor, that's the way you are. But just as I was about to leave the place, my whole body was smelling of smoke. And then I asked myself a question. Is this thing really worth it? What if somebody from my church, I was pastoring a church at the time, what if somebody from my church were to walk up to me and say, perceive this smell all over me? And I said pastor, do you also, every once in a while, you know. But I clearly heard God say to me that you cannot be solved if you are not going to be in this tube. You can't be solved. If you want to be solved, just as Pastor Pundir Quakriya said, you can remain in the soul shape, you can remain in the cellar. You may not, but if you want to be the salt that Christ said, the salt of the earth, then you must be ready to go in this tube. And being in this tube means that you take the heat too. And there's always a lot of heat. A lot of heat. There is no way in the world, anybody who has served in public service will tell you that unless you are willing to do those things that are, even if you are, you are going to be hit all the time. Your reputation is always going to be on the line. People are going to attack you practically every day. The fourth thing that I want to say, the fourth period is that, scripture says in Proverbs 14.34, righteousness exalts a nation. We know that our nation needs righteousness. Without righteousness, our nation cannot be exalted. It means that righteousness exalts individuals, it also exalts a nation. But the problem is that if you stand for righteousness, then righteousness will fight back. And it's always a tough battle. Always a tough battle. There is nobody, and I was sharing with a pastor earlier today, that there is nobody in Nigeria who stands for truth who will not be attacked. But if you stand for evil, you will be surprised how easily you will get away with it. Nobody attacks you if you are prepared to pay bribes. If you are prepared to pay bribes in the right places. If you have public office and you are prepared to come, nobody attacks you. Righteousness exalts a nation. But the same on righteousness is what fights back. And that fight can be tough. Especially as in the country where you have systemic corruption. Corruption in all institutions, including the religious institutions, have often been told, you know, whenever something happens and people are worried about it particularly, have often been told, even where somebody is about to be prosecuted for a crime, prosecuted for a major offense. There are those from church, religious leaders who will call and say, you are there for a time such as this. This your brother should not be tried. Or this your sister should not be tried. That's the kind of thing you get. The fifth and last thing is that our gospel, this gospel is a Contrarian gospel. It is a Contrarian gospel. In other words, it doesn't agree with our flesh. It is the same gospel that says, pray for your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Matthew 5.43 all the way to 46. Then he says, love your enemies. He says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and prosecute you. That you may be sons of your father in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. And sends rain on the ground, with just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax electors do the same. Now the problem is this. The scripture says we should love our neighbors. He says we shouldn't repent. In Romans 12, 19 to 20, he says, Beloved do not avenge ourselves. Don't avenge yourself. But rather keep place to run. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. So God in the gospel says, bless your enemies. Don't revenge. He says, even if your enemy is thirsty, you must give him drink. If he's hungry, you must give him food. Even if it's your enemy. I met a woman whose children, two children were killed by Boko Haram, by some Boko Haram and such. A Christian woman. Two of her children. Her grandfather was also attacked. But he wasn't killed. But strangely this woman said to me, she said, we have a duty to bring these people to Christ. So that's why I have to keep praying for them. I couldn't believe it. There she was. She had lost two children. Her grandfather was also incapacitated. But she said, I have a duty. We all have a duty to keep praying for them because we must bring them to Christ. The truth is that if we are going to, if our gospel will be transformative, it is going to be the same gospel that transforms other nations. Then it's a difficult gospel. It's a contrarian gospel. It's not a gospel that agrees with our flesh. What our flesh says is that, curse your enemies. Revenge. If anybody throws anything at you, you'll throw several back. A few days ago I read the account of the stoning to death of Stephen as contained in Acts 7, 58 to 60. I'm sure that we've read that time and time again. And as I cast him out of the city, I stoned him. The scripture says, laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. As this assault on this man was going on, they were stoning him. And there was a young man called Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out to the loud voice, Lord, do not have a bench. Do not charge them with this thing. Do not charge them with this thing. And when he has said this, the scripture says, he fell asleep. The man who orchestrated and supervised the stoning was a fuller than he heard man called Saul. If Stephen had cursed him and asked that God strike all of his persecutors dead, God would have done so. If Stephen had said, Lord, strike this man dead, God would have done so. And the man who was to write two fells of the New Testament would have died. But this great story doesn't even end there. In Acts 8 verse 3 to 4 we are told that as for Saul, scripture says he made half of the church entering every house striking off men and women, committing them to prison. But what then happened? Therefore, those who were scattered, scripture says, went everywhere preaching the word. This is the wisdom of God. The difficulty for many of us as Christians and the difficulty we have with the gospel is that the gospel simply doesn't agree with our flesh. It simply doesn't. It cannot agree with our flesh. And that is why it is that whether in government or out of government, wherever we may be if we are going to transform our country, the gospel as is contained in scripture that would transform our country. It involves self-sacrifice. We are going to be maligned. We are going to be people who will speak evil of us. When Martin Luther King said non-violence, he was attacked from everywhere. Attacked by black men like himself. Attacked from everywhere. Because the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ can never agree with our flesh. That's why it is so transformative. I want to leave us with some words that were spoken today by a pastor, Tunde Bukkari. And this, you know, I think is for me the major takeaway. He said that they said the nation-building mandate however can only be fulfilled by the overcoming power of faith. Faith in God. And I wanted to listen to the word overcoming power of faith because you need to overcome the faith. Such faith is an active faith. Faith that interfaces with its environment, forcefully advancing against the gates of hell and deploying appropriate strategies from activism to policy propositions and from advocacy to active politics and governance. End of quote. The point of the matter is that our faith means nothing if we're not using it to achieve the purposes and ends that God has called us to achieve. Those purposes and ends are the ends of governance. At the end of the day we are the ones called to decipher the nations. We are the ones called to be the salt of the earth. We are the ones called to be the light of this nation. But it's never going to come easy. Never. It's never going to come easy. It's never going to come easy. Anybody who says that one day light just comes and transforms darkness completely and light wins the battle immediately isn't telling the truth. Light has to fight. It's a constant fight. And all of us who have been involved in it those of us who have not been there must pray and fast. I want to congratulate again all of the members of Shepardil Baptist Church old and new members alike and to thank the Almighty God for this great church and for what the Lord has been doing here for the past 50 years. And to pray that the Almighty God will do even more and that all of us will be here to see another 50 years in good health and joy in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you very much for the voice of the Vice President.